Divisions

Addiction Psychiatry Fellowship Rotations

Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas (THD)

Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas (THD) is an 898-bed flagship hospital in the Texas Health Resource System. The Psychiatry Department provides medically supervised inpatient withdrawal treatment for substance-dependent patients and an intensive outpatient program. Fellows participate as a member of the treatment team, providing individualized clinical care and addressing the needs of the substance-dependant patient and eating-disordered patient, as well as those with co-morbid conditions.

You will have the flexibility necessary to meet your educational goals and interests, such as the opportunity to conduct group therapy, individual therapy, or manage the pharmacological needs of patients.

You will also be encouraged to participate in the training of third-year medical students rotating through the Department for their psychiatry clerkship. The THD Psychiatry Department staff strives to provide you with the clinical experience, supervision, and mentoring that fulfills your training objectives.

Nexus Recovery Center

As an addiction fellow, you will work two days a week for four months under the supervision of the medical director (Eliot deGravelles, M.D.) to address the mental health needs of adolescent and adult females in residential treatment for primary addiction problems. Nexus Recovery Center exclusively serves women and adolescent girls, so issues related to pregnancy and post-partum, parenting, and physical and sexual trauma are prevalent. There is a strong dual-diagnosis component to the rotation, so you will develop skills in the diagnosis and management of women with co-occurring disorders. In addition to individual psychiatric diagnosis and medication management, you will also lead psychoeducational groups and work with the counseling staff to provide training in topics related to substance abuse and mental health.

This is a required 1-month rotation at Parkland Memorial Hospital, the 900-bed, tertiary-care, county hospital adjacent to UT Southwestern Medical Center. You will be responsible for performing and documenting inpatient psychiatric consultations on patients presenting with, or found secondarily to have, substance abuse problems. You will also be responsible for providing ongoing psychotherapy and/or medication management to any of these patients for whom it is indicated. As a full-time resident, you will generally have a caseload of 5-10 patients at any one time. This includes 3-5 new inpatient consults and between 10 and 15 follow-up visits per week. Other members of the consult-liaison psychiatry team are: PG-2 and PG-4 psychiatry residents, a psychosomatic medicine resident, attending psychiatrists, attending psychologists, psychology trainees, medical students, and occasionally neurology residents and geriatric psychiatry residents.

Dallas Veterans Affairs Medical Center

Addiction fellowship residents rotating through the VA Medical Center participate in the diagnosis, treatment, treatment planning, and continuing care of veterans between the ages of 18-65 years. Inpatient, outpatient, and residential rehabilitation programs are all directly part of your experience. The VA Medical Center also provides you with experience in pain management under the direct supervision of qualified pain specialists. Treatment with opioid maintenance therapies, including methadone and buprenorphine, are part of the rotation experience. You will respond to calls from consultation-liaison and emergency services during regular working hours in collaboration with an attending addiction psychiatrist. There is no after-hours on-call requirement. On the inpatient service, the range of experience includes detoxification (alcohol, illicit drugs, opioids, etc) as well as assessment for continuing care and appropriate placement following discharge from acute care. Supervision on the rotation is provided by UT Southwestern Medical School faculty trained and certified in addiction psychiatry and addiction medicine, with frequent contact on a daily basis between trainees and clinical teachers. In addition to the clinical work with patients, the VA Medical Center has a vigorous educational program which includes weekly Grand Rounds, a monthly journal club, and supervised reading with selected faculty.

Caron Treatment Center

The Caron Treatment Center is a 40-bed, private, residential treatment program located in the North Dallas area. This beautiful, 28,000-square-feet substance abuse treatment facility, located just 45 minutes from the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, sits on a 40-acre, serene and secluded campus with numerous amenities including a fitness facility and swimming pool. Caron Treatment Centers is one of the oldest and largest treatment centers in the country. Caron Texas serves adults and their families by offering gender-separate and gender-specific substance abuse treatment. Caron Texas treats the whole individual physically, mentally, and spiritually. The average length of stay is 4–6 weeks. Individualized substance abuse treatment plans for each patient combined with individual and group therapy, therapeutic activities, daily lectures, and continuing care planning are provided to each patient.